Distinctive ringing on telephones has been used to alert called parties of a particular type of call, such as when callers dial different telephone numbers than a main number. Distinctive call waiting uses a called number to determine a particular ring tone to use. An example of distinctive call waiting is in a household setting where each household member is assigned one of a set of numbers. When calls come into the main number, an inbound call is signaled by a normal ring tone or by a normal call waiting tone if the line is in use. If a call comes to one of the additional telephone numbers, the ring or call waiting tone is different than the normal ring or call waiting tone to identify that the call is for one of the children, instead of the parents. Based on the particular ring or call waiting tone, one of the children would answer the phone.
A person may forward their work phone number and/or their mobile phone to distinct numbers, such as a second or third phone number subscribed to at their residence. In this scenario, the mobile phone and the work phone could have different distinctive ring or call waiting tones assigned to such incoming call forwarded calls, given that they are forwarded to distinct numbers, such as a second or third subscriber phone numbers. A problem with this approach is misdialed and telemarketing calls. A called party may answer the call thinking it is a call from work and instead receive a telemarketing call. Customers find this problem irritating and confusing. Also, the personalized ring feature uses added phone numbers and leads to a scarcity of available phone numbers for a particular region. Severe phone number shortages could occur in certain market areas, resulting in undesirable area code splits or overlays.